The Crane Index^™ · Newsroom

Press and downloads.

Everything to run the story. The Crane Index^™ measures how cleanly a machine can read and represent the leading organisations in an industry. Every figure below is a first-party measurement, free to quote and republish with attribution, and re-runnable live in about a minute.

Headline findings

The FTSE 100 (measured 19 July 2026). Of 79 of Britain's largest companies, 38 could be read by a machine at all, and not one reached the Strong band of 70 out of 100. The field is led by Whitbread at 62. Budget bought none of them legibility.
The UK's biggest online retailers (measured 20 July 2026). Of 142 major storefronts, only 77 could be read by a machine, and retail's identity read collapsed to a median of 25. The list is topped not by a giant but by Riverford at 62.
The programme. Nineteen benchmarks, from the FTSE 100 to seventeen industries, re-scored on the first of each month so the movement becomes public record. The industry benchmarks join from August 2026.

The one-line story is the same in every cohort: the machine-readable web is early, structure decides rank rather than size or spend, and the top of every table is unclaimed territory.

A quote you may use

“The web spent thirty years being optimised for people. Almost none of it has been optimised for the machines that now stand between a business and its customers. The Crane Index^™ measures that gap in public, one industry at a time, and the striking part is that budget does not close it. Structure does.”

Nic Crane, founder, The Crane Consultancy

Downloads

The leaderboardTop ten of every measured cohort, one document.PDF ↓ FTSE 100 reportThe full ranked field and method.PDF ↓ UK retailers reportThe full ranked field and method.PDF ↓ Social card1200 by 630, for use alongside the story.JPG ↓

Reports refresh on the first of each month. For the full method behind every figure, see the methodology.

Licence and how to cite

Released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence: free to quote, chart and republish with attribution. Please cite as:

The Crane Index^™, the AI visibility benchmark. The Crane Consultancy. thecraneconsultancy.com/research/

Press contact

For interviews, a specific industry cut, or a figure checked before you publish, write to [email protected]. We are glad to run a bespoke cohort for a story on request.